TV
Upfronts are apparently coming up soon. Usually that means lots of cancellation news, but it seems that most of my favorites fate has already been decided. Only Community is still up in the air. This year all the news seems to be around pilots.

Difficult People on USAÂ (LW) created by Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner. Most of the news stories focus on Amy Poehler producing, and sheâ€™s great, but you have me sold on Eichner/Klausner. The show is about best friends who hate everyone except each other, so it sounds perfect. Itâ€™s on USA, which I hadnâ€™t watched in forever, I think they used to show American Gladiators in the mornings during the summer. Recently, they hooked me with Playing House, which is a slightly different show from Best Friends Forever, but mostly the same, as it should be because NBC should have never cancelled it.

Rashida Jones had a pilot picked up on TBS (LW). Itâ€™s produced by Steve Carell and his wife and sounds a bit like Brooklyn Nine-Nine just because itâ€™s a cop comedy. Making fun of Law & Order, Rashida will work in the RHCU, Really Heinous Crimes Unit.

Last, for the Philly based fans. The Eagles arenâ€™t brining back Dan Baker (LW). You might not know the name but if you have been to a Phillies or Eagles game, then you know his voice. Always seemed to me like a while Phillies season was enough, so hopefully heâ€™ll enjoy a lot of free Sundays.

Still, even in the simple example used in the video, it gets kids to start thinking with a basic idea of a variable (and maybe a data type) and if statements.

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

This guy’s idea was to take a second of video everyday and stitch it all together. He was thinking that he forgot too many experiences. I’ve always had a similar problem. In college I always said I wanted to hire a stenographer to follow me around because I always forgot really smart things I said during the day.

The bonus to this video concept is that in order to remember, you should have some video worth remembering. So it forces him to try and do something each day that is worthwhile. A chunk comes from his 3 month cross country roadtrip. Which is weird cause I’ve wanted to do that for a long long time and was just thinking about it a few days before watching this.

Mike

If my jaw drops during a TED Talk, I have to share. It certainly did during this one and during the quick audience shot, I spotted a few with the same look.

I’m obviously curious to hear more about this an its potential. My one question to start, if that same disc being 2mm thick can support a small car, how do you adjust it? It can’t be as easy to manipulate as the very thin example he was using on stage. That thicker one would be really locked into place.

Mike

This video is actually from 2005, and posted last May. I watched in a few days ago and haven’t had a shoelace come untied yet. Of course, I haven’t been walking around very much, and my dress shoes are the real problems, they will be the real test. It’s a little harder to tie this way, but not impossible. It could just be because I’m so used to the old way. I’ll be curious if it does work if eventually it won’t feel weird.

This may change my life. In undergrad I decided that if my shoe came untied during the day it was bad luck.

Mike

This TED Talk, The happy secret to better work, was just loaded with facts and studies. One caught my attention a little more than the others. That when someone smiles at you, you mimic the smile and use that to determine if the smile is genuine.

Ok, when someone smiles at you, you smile back. Makes sense. But mimicking their smile? I had no idea. But how to test that is what actually happens? They made people hold a pencil in their mouth which inhibited their ability to mimic the smile. Those subjects were less accurate in determining if a smile was genuine.

Seems like there are a lot of possibilities here. Are some people’s smiles more easily mimicked? Does this lead to success being famous or holding higher political office. Is there smile compatibility? Do people have a smile-type they look for in a mate? Could dating sites use this to find a match where each person is the others smile-type?

Who knew there was so much research in smiling?

Mike

I have a couple of TED videos queued up to share. Most of them I have something to add besides just posting. This one, I can just post. Don’t worry, it’s not a sad talk, or one that makes you think to much.